2 Live Crew Rapper Fresh Kid Ice Dead at 53

Fresh Kid Ice of 2 Live Crew poses for a portrait during the Rock The Vote 25th Anniversary Concert at The Black Cat on Oct. 22, 2015 in Washington, DC.

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Chris Wong Won – better known as Fresh Kid Ice, a founding member of pioneering and famously controversial rap group 2 Live Crew – has died at 53, according to former bandmates Luther Campbell and Brother Marquis.

My Condolence goes out to the family Chris Wong Wong Fresh Kid Ice of the 2 Live Crew who just passed away people we lost a legend

“I just got the word that my long time friend and rap legend Fresh Kid Ice the Chinaman has passed away,” Brother Marquis told Vibe. “I would like to say that I love him and extend my condolences to his family. He truly loved all of his fans. I’ll always remember and cherish all of the good times we had together and all of the history we made. I would like to express my true love for him.”

Fresh Kid Ice (also known as The Chinaman) was the first famous rapper of Asian descent (he was of Chinese and Trinidadian descent). Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, he moved to Brooklyn as a teen, joined the U.S. Air Force for four years and formed 2 Live Crew in the early '80s.

As part of 2 Live Crew, he contributed to a string of sexually explicit Gold and Platinum albums from 1986 to 1991, including the 1989 classic As Nasty As They Wanna Be. In addition to giving the world the Full Metal Jacket-sampling single "Me So Horny" – which hit No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Hot Rap Songs list – As Nasty As They Wanna Be holds an important place in pop culture history: It's the first album to be declared legally obscene by a court. It was subsequently banned in Florida, although the ruling was later overturned.